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Planning Bill

moved Amendment No. 129B: 129B: Clause 199, page 114, line 14, leave out ““Charging authorities”” and insert ““The charge”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, this group of government amendments provides clarification about the way that CIL will operate and is, I hope, uncontroversial. Government Amendments Nos. 129B to 129G amend the table set out in Clause 199(3). The table offers guidance to users of Part 11 about the content of the clauses. The table needs to be updated to reflect the existence of new clauses. The noble Earl, Lord Caithness, may recall our discussion about a similar amendment that he tabled in Committee. I asked him to withdraw his amendment because I thought that the Public Bill Office would update the table as necessary. The Public Bill Office updated the table when the Bill was printed on its introduction to the House of Lords to reflect new clauses introduced in the other place. However, we are now advised that the table must be updated by amendment. Amendments Nos. 129B to 129G achieve that, taking on board amendments provided for new clauses which we have tabled for Report. We regret misleading the noble Earl, but can assure him that we thought the amendment of the table would simply be a formality when we discussed it in Committee. Government Amendment No. 136C is a practical amendment to Clause 203 to make express provision to allow charging authorities to undertake preparatory work, including consultation in connection with their charging schedules ahead of full CIL regulations. Of course, the preparatory work that a charging authority does must be robust. To this end, the amendment provides for regulations to set out how such work must be undertaken, and could set down the minimum standard such work must satisfy in order to be relied upon by the charging authority. Government Amendment No. 161A is supplemental to Amendment No. 136C and amends Clause 233 to allow the Secretary of State to commence the new provision which Amendment No. 161A would insert by order, rather than automatically on commencement of the Act, or two months later. This will allow time for the Secretary of State to prepare regulations setting out how preparatory work should be undertaken. Government Amendments Nos. 137A and 137B provide for regulations to put in place a sensible mechanism to rectify mistakes that may, with the best of intentions, slip into the report of the independent person examining the charging schedule or the final charging schedule approved by the charging authority. We do not want the charging authority to have to go through the entire process of revising the schedule in order to correct an error. A mechanism called the slip rule exists to correct minor errors in relation to planning decisions. This amendment allows for a similar mechanism to be provided in relation to CIL charging schedules. This provision is not about allowing the independent person belatedly to change their mind about their decision, or the charging authority to substitute their preferred decision for that of the independent examiner. Regulations could contain certain safeguards as to how this power can be used. Government Amendment No. 140B clarifies who any proceedings for judicial review of a decision on an appeal on a matter of fact under Clause 207 would be brought against. Government Amendment No. 140B specifies that the defendant would not be the individual valuer or district valuer who determined the appeal, but rather the public body that employs them, that is to say, the commissioners of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. This is not an unusual arrangement. For example, in relation to planning appeals, or appeals against the refusal of listed building consent, determined by individual planning inspectors, any claim for judicial review is against the Secretary of State, rather than the individual. This provision puts in place sensible protections for the individual decision-maker when acting in a public capacity, not least against the costs of defending a claim for judicial review, but it returns the recourse to judicial review of a decision, which is crucial for confidence in the system. Government Amendment No. 146C provides that a power in Part 11 of the Bill, about the publication of, for example, the charging schedule or other document, includes the power to make provision to make it available for public inspection. This power could be used to specify that charging authorities must make copies of the charging schedule available for inspection by the public during office hours at their principal offices, for example. Clause 208(8) already contains a similar provision but is limited in its application to Clause 205(5)(a), which is about the publication of a list of the projects to be funded by CIL. It becomes redundant as a result of this amendment and government Amendment No. 142C therefore deletes it. The powers relating to accounting and reporting requirements in Clause 208(7)(a) and (c) only apply to charging authorities and bodies to which a charging authority might pass CIL, but Clause 209(5) allows regulations to empower or require other authorities to collect CIL charged by another authority. For instance, a London borough might collect CIL on behalf of the mayor. Therefore, government Amendment No. 143A extends the powers in Clause 208(7) to be able to impose requirements on how collecting authorities make accounts about CIL and reporting on its collection. This is so that requirements similar to those imposed on charging authorities for the purposes of transparency and accountability can be placed on them. Government Amendment No. 144C enables regulations to provide for enforcement in the case of the death or insolvency of a person liable for CIL. Such provision is important if charging authorities are to collect CIL effectively. This amendment will allow regulations to set out the detail of how CIL is to be recovered in such situations. One possible model is paragraph 10 of Schedule 4 to the Business Improvement Districts Regulations 2004, which provides that, in essence, executors or administrators are liable to pay any outstanding liability out of the assets and effects of the deceased. This amendment enables CIL regulations to provide for a similar approach. Government Amendments No. 145A, 145B and 145C propose changes to Clause 211, which would ensure that the authority which collects and enforces CIL can be made subject to the compensation provisions set out in regulations under Clause 211, even if they are not the charging authority. Currently, Clause 211 on compensation provides that CIL regulations may only make provision for charging authorities. However, charging authorities might delegate the collection—and therefore the enforcement—of CIL to another authority. This scenario might arise through a voluntary arrangement between authorities, or regulations might require one authority to collect for another, as I have already said. It is sensible to ensure that we have the power to make any authority enforcing CIL liable to pay any compensation for loss or damage resulting from inappropriate enforcement activity. It is therefore vital that the Bill contains provisions to make regulations for that. It is also sensible to make provision for regulations to be able to require charging authorities to use CIL money to pay any compensation arising from CIL enforcement actions, rather than other council budgets potentially being put at risk. Government Amendment No. 145D expands Clause 211(5) to provide for this. Government Amendment No. 147A expands Clause 213 to enable the Secretary of State to give guidance to the independent examiners who will undertake the examination in public of the charging schedule. The provision could be used to provide guidance for the examiners about the conduct of the examination and the types of procedure that might be appropriate. This is not about fettering the discretion of the independent person to do what is appropriate in the circumstances of each case, but would help to ensure consistency of approach and minimum standards for examinations. I beg to move.